The Hawke's Bay Times, THURSDAY, 13th DECEMBER, 1866. THE ILLEGAL OCCUPATION OF THE CONFISCATED LANDS ON THE EAST COAST.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 8, Issue 446, 13 December 1866, Page 2

The Hawke's Bay Times,

THURSDAY, 13th DECEMBER, 1866. THE ILLEGAL OCCUPATION OF THE CONFISCATED LANDS ON THE EAST COAST .

PUBLISHED ZVEHT KOH9AT AND THCESDAT. “itoixius Assicnrs auKAs* ur vkbba maoistbi.”

" Be not decelrel—that which a man toweth, that also ■hall he reap." “ From the East Cape to Poverty Bay the test country has been leased by private individuals from the ostensible native owners/ —these “ostensible owners” being generally defeated rebels, and the lands so leased by private individuals confiscated lands, the property of the Crown, and to which the ostensible owners have no more right than the private individuals to whom they have leased them. Could any other result have been looked for by those who have for years past acted in an almost similar illegal way with the unalienated lands of this Province ? We think not: rather we think that the impunity with which the latter was done by those in high places, would act as an incitement to others to try the same kind of thing with regard to the confiscated lands, with something like a reasonable prospect of a similar impunity.

Some eight months since one of the usual paper notices was issued by the Government, warning all persons from entering into arrangements with the natives for land in these districts, just as similar proclamations were from time to time issued regarding the illegal leasing of past years, and with the same result. For a few weeks the proclamation is regarded f then the cupidity of “ settlers who could not brook the tardiness of men in authority” overcomes their prudence and their regard for law, and they act as though there were no ill consequences to be feared from its violation. Perhaps they may be right. As in the other case, it may depend on whom they are. For our own part we believe that were we transgressors in this case the law could be brought to bear against us.

We do not say that no blame attaches to the General Government for allowing so long a period to elapse before taking steps for throwing open so valuable a district to the enterprise of settlers; but we do say that a very heavy amount of responsibility rests on those who, by their dealings with rebels for forfeited lands, create the chance—perhaps the certainty—of future complications and embarassments which will result from their illegal action. So far as the Government was concerned, much of the larid in question had ceased to belong to the natives, and bad become Crown Lands as fully as any that , had ever been obtained by direct purchase. The arrangement of cession or confiscation was made by Sir George Grey himself in the month of March

last, at an interview with the natives at Tauranga—so,ooo acres being ceded out of the Tauranga Block; and the natives expressing themselves—as they well might—well satisfied with the leniency displayed by Sir George Grey in the matter. It is after all satisfactory to know that the Government are at length alive to the importance of putting a stop to the irregularity, and have given notice of their intention to appoint a Court for the investigation of titles to the various lands on the East Coast, as soon as it is rendered practicable by the completion of the surveys necessary for the determination of their boundaries, and the proper identification of the several blocks of land.